Raptor Eyes
by azrael.morgan
Summary: Billy Brennan and his college friend James Owen travel back to site B when satellite images report that there is a human on the island. What they find is that someone has been left behind.
1. Chapter 1

Sweat meandered down his temple, catching in the groove that his tight wired glasses created in the side of his face before cascading down his jaw to fall to the jungle floor. Breathing deeply through his mouth he managed to keep relatively quiet, quiet enough for them not to hear him. This of course was a psychological defense mechanism that he used to keep himself even more calm. Truth be told, they knew he was there-knew his exact location, the sound of his heartbeat, the hyper-hushed click of the Canon and the rustle of his clothing rubbing together whenever he shifted.

His finger gently pressed the button on his camera, starting a series of events that would inevitably capture the first images of the Dinosaur Girl, the one who was left behind, the girl that survived. The shutter whirred at the volume of a butterfly's wings whipping the air, capturing image after image of the woman not more than 50 feet from him.

His partner, Dr. James Owen, shifted beside him. The ferns stirred too loudly and immediately the woman, smeared in mud, fled the scene. Moments later, when the faint sound of her fleeing ceased, the photographer turned to his partner.

"We may never see her again," he shook his head, twisting the lens free and stuffing it into a specially designed shoulder bag for the few-thousand dollar camera.

"Billy," James stood, wiping the sweat from his brow, "Chill. She's as curious about us as we are of her. And her friends."

She lived among the deadliest creatures ever to have walked the planet: raptors. They eat together and allow her into their nesting grounds. From what Billy and James have observed thus far, the jungle woman is coexisting successfully with raptors.

"You have no idea what's going on, what these things are capable of." Billy stood and ran his fingers through his dirty blond curls cut short on his head.


	2. Chapter 2

A mosquito landed on the soft exposed flesh between two fingers, perching on the edge of cracked mud that had long since dried. She lifted her hand, gazing at the small creature and winced as it leaned forward, pressing its needle siphon into her flesh. She reached forward with her other hand, grasping the bug's wings between her nails she pulled it from her hand and flung it off into the underbrush.

He watched her intently, wondering what could be going through her head. Was she a primitive being? Did she know how to speak? Did she understand concepts? Did she know that she was left behind and is a miracle?

She stood now, turning around and round in the mud. It must be a type of clay, probably high in nutrients and surely used to keep the bugs at bay. While Billy was being eaten alive, he watched the Raptor Girl—a name affectionately given to her by those that first observed her images taken by satellites—cleverly cover her entire naked body with the mud.

Her hands cupped the mud and dragged her palm up her legs, smearing the clay mud over her skin. Straightening, she would use both hands to cover her stomach and chest.

Billy swallowed, watching the way her hand slid over her ample breast—the way the mud smeared over her tanned skin and the pert nipples. He turned away from her, as her hands swept between her legs, sliding up the inside of her thighs. After a few minutes he turned back to her and found that she wasn't alone.

It was magnificent. The raptor stepped into the mud, its claw gleaming in the high-noon light. He would've guessed that it was female, maybe even the same female from the island when he was there some 12 years ago. She stood a little shorter than the raptor girl, her angular head held high, cocked back on the thick neck that lacked the markings which the males had. Her flesh was a mottled gray, deep brown, rustic green with a curdled blood colored ring around her eyes.

The alpha raptor sniffed the woman before hissing, her jaws parting to display the rows of gleaming little daggers. The woman bent down immediately, even in the mud, and lowered her head in a submissive movement. The raptor clicked, tilting its head to the side in quick movements, much like a bird, before it nudged her shoulder.

The woman smiled, mud crinkling on her face around her mouth, and lifted her hand to the raptor. She paused for a moment until the raptor lifted its head to touch her palm. A deep rumbling filled the jungle.

"My God…" Billy whispered, his lips curling into a smile as the raptor purred.

The woman stroked between the raptor's eyes, her hand moving back and forth. Her fingers moved down beneath its jaw. The raptor parted its jaws and the woman, unafraid, lowered her head to be eye to eye with the beast that had evoked so much terror in Billy all those years ago.

Now he was fascinated, absolutely fascinated by the woman's relationship with the raptors and the way that she was able to achieve a connection that the scientists for years couldn't possibly dream of. How could such a thing develop? How is it even possible for such killers to connect with a human being?

He coughed.

The woman dove between ferns, bounding off between trees and off into the distance. The raptor turns to look directly at Billy, hissing just as low as she had been purring. She was aware, deathly aware of exactly where Billy was, how he was and that he'd been watching. There was a sense of knowing in her golden eyes that shook the photographer to his very core.

Turning her head up to the sky, the raptor cocked her neck and let out a raspy call before racing off in the direction that the woman had gone, tail whipping the ferns with loud 'thwaps'.

Lines buzzed across the bottom of the laptop, revealing a faulty connection. Dr. Alan Grant on the other side of the video chat was moving in at about ¾ speed—Billy felt as if he were watching a poorly made stop motion film. The only highlight of the video chat was that the audio seemed unaffected by the lack of connection.

"That isn't possible. Absolutely not possible." Alan's head shook from side to side, Billy seeing his head move to the left, stop, start to turn to the right and then jump to the right.

His fingers thrummed on the metal drop-down table of the trailer, "I know, I know. We didn't think so, but she's alive and well. Living with them. Not just with them, Alan… she's among them. I watched with my own eyes the interaction between her and the alpha raptor of the south island troop. The alpha accepted her and allowed her to give contact—affectionate contact."

"What about the images?"

"I've uploaded them and…" Billy glanced to the bottom right of the screen, reading the bar showing the rate at which the images were being sent, "Just a few more minutes and you'll have them."

Alan lowered his head, stop-motion film again, then sighed audibly. He glanced up at the screen, brushing his fingers through his dark-silver hair, "What did they want you to do with her?"

Billy sat back a bit, straightening. "I was given classified instruction, Alan. I can't tell you."

Silence fell awkwardly between them, the popping and buzzing of the generator powering the trailer providing some comforting white noise.

"But the satellite images were correct—the large predators have died out. The island wasn't capable of supporting so many large predators. Gallimimus have been wiped out, they were the primary food source of the Tyrannosaurs and Spinosaurs-" Billy began and was cut off by Alan.

"Wait… did you say, Spinosaurs?"

Billy laughed lightheartedly and nodded, "Spinosaurs. Plural. There were three apparently. They were the first large predators to die—only about two years after we left did they die off. And then the Tyrannosaurs went, six years after we were on the island. There is only a lone pair of Carnosaurs still alive, but they stick exclusively to the lower east end of the island near the delta."

James Owen closed the mini-fridge, sipping a box of fruit punch. He leaned in front of the laptop, waving, "Hey Alan!" The younger part of the two-man team sat on the other side of the table, looking at Billy. "Did you tell him about our Amazonian princess?"

Alan laughed, "I hear she's quite the raptor girl."

James crushed the juice box, "Mmmhm. A mighty fine, naked raptor girl."

Billy blushed unbeknownst to him, "The few times that we've seen her, she's been nude. I would've expected as much so it's not that big of a deal."

"This conference is a big deal, I've got to get going. Make sure those images send, alright? And take care. The last thing I need it to lose a good friend to that god forsaken island," Alan said with a frown. He sat back in his desk and waved, "Goodbye Billy, and James."

James said goodbye under his breath while he tinkered with some unknown electronic. Billy smiled, "Talk to you later, Alan."

Alan logged out and the window closed on the laptop. Billy sighed, making sure that the loading bar at the bottom right of the screen had filled and blinked 'sent' before shutting the laptop.

"So what do we do with the girl?" James pushed a AA battery into a radio and closed the back of it, flipping it over in his hand to turn it on. He flipped from channel to channel to see if it was working before glancing up at Billy.

Billy shrugged, "They want us to bring her back for testing."

James nodded, "And who is they?"

"InGen," Billy murmured, turning to gaze out the window into the jungle some 400 yards North of their camp.


	3. Chapter 3

"Where are we going?" James asked quietly, following never more than two paces behind Billy—the leader of the two-man team.

James had learned quickly that Billy, though polite, quite and sometimes too intelligent for his own good, was a strict leader. One had to keep up with him at all times, had to be prepared for anything at any time and must act smart. He liked to say, "Stupid is as stupid does." And Billy was not fond of stupid in any sense of the word.

"We're checking out the compound to note the degradation and then heading off to the bone yard," Billy mumbled, chin tilted down for the time being as he watched the GPS screen to make sure they were on track.

His partner nodded, looking back over their shoulders. James was about a foot taller than Billy, a bit more muscular than and not nearly as smart (though not dumb either) as his leader. He had dark brown hair, so dark it looked black which was buzzed and coming in now as a tennis ball-type fuzz that prior to coming to the island—his wife had loved to touch. She had begged him not to go, but it was the chance of a lifetime.

Billy wondered why the men at InGen employed James. He was a part-time artist, part-time geologist. His knowledge of rock types and rocks couldn't help anyone on the island, unless there was a rock handy to throw at a starving raptor. A smile crept over Billy's chapped lips as he imagined how a raptor may react to being hit in the noggin with a rock.

"What's at the bone yard?" James pondered aloud.

The men crested over a ridge, revealing the man-made valley beneath where the overgrown, decrepit compound lay. Billy grinned, stuffing the GPS into his back cargo-pant pocket and hopped down to a landing with the aid of an exposed root.

"The bone yard, seen from the satellite images is a weird feature on the island whether the predators oddly collected before death. The goons back in the lab on the mainland want to know why the predators collected at that location," the photographer explained, smiling now with bright teeth gleaming.

For a moment James thought he resembled a raptor.

Something that Billy didn't realize until much later than expected, was that the clearing in front of the compound was absolutely trampled. Last time he was on the island, the expanse before the compound was overgrown with foliage at least up to his waist. Now, there was a clear trail straight through the valley. He removed the camera from its bag and screwed on a lens, lifting the camera to his eye.

Gazing through the view finder he took photo after photo of the compound, then turned the lens down to the ground where he captured even more images of the mass of footprints beneath them. Large prints, small prints, tiny prints—all prints of herbivores for sure, the only herding animals on the island.

James smiled, "Migratory path?"

Billy shrugged, "Island is a little small for migration, but that seems like the only legitimate cause."

The compound's doors hung off the hinges: one remained in the frame, the windows so covered in water spots and mold that the cracks—sure to be in the glass—were hidden; the other door was gnarled opened outward with jagged metal jutting from the upper hinge, the handle twisted completely off, the glass broken. The shards of glass crunched dully under the moss at the entrance. Entering the lobby, Billy's heart began to race in his chest.

Images of the last time he was in the compound flashes hotly in his mind. _"This way!" Run, run from the raptor 'cause it's coming for you. You'll be a meal if you don't get away. Alan, shit! He's with the dumbass tile guy. Run, run, run. Hide. Yes, a cage to keep it out. Yes! No… a cage to keep us in! Fuck! "Push!" That's right! Push, push, push. Faster, harder! Lock it in, yes! Run, run! Run!_ _"Billy-"_

"Billy!" James called out.

Billy was suddenly aware of where he was, that he wasn't in immediate danger and that James' sweaty hand was on his forearm. He looked down and gulped, feeling his heart ebb as it slowed to a normal pace. His eyes fluttered still until he rubbed them with the back of his hand. Only the weight of the camera hanging around his neck provided any comfort.

"I'm fine," his hand moved to James' middle finger, plucking it and lifting the clammy hand from his forearm, "Really."

James nodded and turned back to the desk, now a mound of mold, intertwined ivy and foliage. He stepped back, lip curling as a harmless snake slithered across a knot of vines.

They stalked deeper into the compound, the vines and foliage having long since rotted the heart of the building, making it absolutely unlivable. The incubators were in even worse condition than they had so many years ago; each little egg shell was filled with a mossy, soggy looking soup that moved with a sickening number of larvae from some unknown insect or amphibian. The large tubes that once housed dinosaur fetuses were absolutely filled with algae, the liquid a murky green slime that made James gag. Billy turns to look at his partner and laugh, remembering how it felt to photograph the nursery 12 years ago.

He shot more photos, making sure to try and get as close to the same position as his other images were taken a dozen years before. It wasn't hard to remember—the adrenaline from the situation jogged his memory.

Billy led the geologist through the same hallway, spying the vending machines, one of which still had the broken front. The hole was larger than Billy remembered and when he inspected it closer, dried blood tipped the glass shards. Torn candy bars still sit perched against the wire coils in the machine. He sighed and pulled a rock-hard Snickers bar from a coil, tossing it to the floor.

James wiped the sweat from his brow and turned to look towards the entrance of the compound where a great horn sounded. "Symphony?"

The photographer rolled his eyes, "Didn't you do a little research before coming?"

The geologist frowned and shook his head as Billy rushed past, lifting the camera eagerly. The call of the great Parasaurolophus boomed out in a harmonious melody now, at least a dozen great bests lumbering across the clearing. James walked up behind Billy and gasped, his eyes growing wide as each beast at least 20 feet tall walked by.

Billy lifted the camera, "Research, James." He laughed and snapped photo after photo.

Each barrage of snapshots caught the hadrosaurs as they moved gracefully through the overgrown parking lot of the compound. The largest, most colorful male presumably moved at the front of the herd, his horn and duck-bill wildly decorated with vibrant hues of orange, red, purple and speckles of what appeared to be a Caribbean blue color. The photographer marveled at the beasts, shaking his head in disbelief as he admired the formation. Alpha male at the front, two slightly smaller creatures behind him, fanning out in a slight diamond pattern that must have been females—their colors were earthy and muted. Even smaller juveniles—about the height of a school bus—strode behind the females, about four or five of them. These juveniles were backed by another male, possibly one growing to the age where he'd compete for alpha position in the herd. At the center of the diamond pattern were a number of young-ings, early juveniles that had yet to grow into their horns which were awkwardly large for their stubby heads. Their bodies were no bigger than a small Mini-Cooper.

Billy crept down the stairs, snapping photo after photo of one infant that had a gash in its tail so large that he wondered how it could've survived whatever had attacked it. It waddled, crying out to its mother that must have been at the head of the heard with the alpha male.

"This isn't a good situation," Billy murmured to James who remained inside, hiding inside of the lobby.

As if on cue, the infant Parasaurolophus collapsed in the middle of the clearing. Billy stood motionless. He didn't hear or see anything that came out and gutted the infant. He frowned and lifted the camera, twisting the lens to zoom in. Only then was a spear revealed, pinning the infant by the throat to the ground.

His jaw went slack, "What the fuck?"


	4. Chapter 4

The spear quivered in the ground, letting the energy of the throw slowly release through the rhythmic undulations. Blood gushed around the spear, spurting violently when an undulation would allow for more blood to pass through the hole. The infant Parasaurolophus kicked and continued kicking until a pool of blood had formed beneath its neck. Its head drooped, duck bill contorted in a silent cry as its tail laid stiffly on the ground. Only now did the herd realize their crippled infant had fallen, slain by some unknown creature.

The right female turned, her great head gazing at the gory scene. She let out a wail that pulled at Billy's heart, making his eyes droop with sadness. She wailed again, a song so harmonious and tragic that he wondered if she truly felt loss, or just some primal sensation that wouldn't necessarily make sense to humans. She ran to the babe, wailing as she drew nearer.

A whirlwind of color darted out from nearly every direction, black and red torpedoes weaving between the stump-like legs of the herd, out into the center where their meal lay bleeding out. Billy lifted his camera and began to take photos of the scene. Raptors circled the mother and her infant, distressing her so that the entire herd turned on their great legs to face the distressed mother. She spun faster than the team could've anticipated, calling out in a desperate symphony. The raptors ran around her, hissing and snarling at her while the alpha male reared, doubling his height and let out such a call that Billy's head shrank into his shoulders in attempt to protect his ears without dropping the camera.

One of the male raptors, elaborately colored with short primal feathers adorning its skull and upper neck, ran at the mother, jumping onto her back. She wailed, rearing just as their alpha had and came down with such force on her forelegs that the raptor was thrown across the clearing. The raptor angrily slammed into a crumpled, rusting car and hissed back at her—seemingly un-phased.

The woman, the raptor girl, covered in clay dust from the dried and long since fallen clay mud came out from the jungle, letting out such a scream that one would have assumed that someone was dying. The alpha female raptor emerged from somewhere to the north of the clearing, walking out with her head held high as if she literally owned the place—Billy was sure that she did. She hissed lowly and the raptors in the clearing coalesced in the center near the infant, making a sort of chevron around its body, facing the mother. They snapped their tooth lined jaws, hissing angrily at her

James had pulled out a sketchpad and was furiously recording the event unfolding before them, his intense eyes focused on the hadrosaurs desperately trying to mourn the death of a fallen infant. Billy snapped photo after photo and only when the mother Parasaur, wailing in agony at her loss, turned on her heels and walked towards the front of the herd did he let the camera fall. His eyes, sullen and rimmed red with emotion fell to the mossy front steps of the compound.

The raptor woman stood back behind her kill as the herd of horned hadrosaurs continued their passage through the compound lot. She stood proud, puffed up—back arched to push her chest out, legs spread slightly in a defensive stance with her arms tight at her sides, muscles tense.

"She's proud," Billy whispered, watching the woman turn finally from the herd as it disappeared into the jungle beyond.

He stepped back, turning to look at James who had filled at least three pages of quick scribbles since standing there. His eyes were wide, crazed and full of awe. "Is it over?"

Billy nodded, touching his index finger to his chapped lips. The artist sighed quietly, nodding as he put the sketchbook into his backpack, re-slinging it over his shoulder. He followed Billy as he made his way through the compound again, even quieter than before.

They found a back door and by one in the afternoon, they reached the bone yard where the predators of the island—the large ones anyway—had gone to die suspiciously.


	5. Chapter 5

"Half-hour, James. We have to get back to camp before sundown or god-knows what'll happen to us," Billy warned, walking around a Tyrannosaur femur to snap a photo of the same beast's skull.

James nodded his head and finished a rough sketch of the entire scene. He moved to crouch before a Spinosaur skull, sketching it quickly. Billy watched as the geologist stowed the sketchbook only to remove a small leather covered kit with one latch that snapped onto the cover. It looked like a book and when he opened it, the geologist's eyes lit up.

In the impression of the earth that was no more than 50 yards in diameter, made of dark basalt. It was sharp, sometimes crumbly, sometimes found in sheets. The foliage that grew around the bones was interesting: brand new sprouts of grass and flowers. There weren't any ferns or trees that one would expect to find in a caldera. The geologist frowned and walked halfway up the slope, taking note of the small size of the caldera—maybe a failed mini-volcano? He sighed and walked half around the concave dome, admiring how the bones were absolutely clean of all muscle, ligament, or any sign other than grooves in the bleached white masses.

He smirked, tapping a small ceramic tile used to help identify minerals against the rock identification kit in his hands. "I think I know what's going on here, Billy."

Billy looked up from a tooth he'd wiggled free of a Spinosaur skull. "What's that?"

James shifted on his heels, excited that he could for once exercise a bit of his intelligence. "We're standing in a small caldera-" he paused, seeing Billy nod in understanding, "It's still active… that's why the bones are so clean and the flora is so new. Everything gets cooked every so often by the volcanic activity."

The photographer grinned, "Now figure out why they all came here to die."

"Well…" James started, his mouth opening and closing like a guppy gasping for air as he tried to figure out what to say, "I don't know. That could take forever to find out. I'd need samples and readings and…" Billy stood there, staring at James for a few moments. James laughed, lowering his head, "Right… I'll get on that."

"Jesus, these are amazing," James admitted, dragging his finger across the screen of the iPad where Billy had uploaded all the images taken from the events of the day. Strumming his finger across the bottom of the screen, he watched the images mold together in a sort of video revealing the stand-off between raptor and Parasaur. He continued and then stopped, gazing at image 483. "Hey, Billy…" his voice held a certain air of wonder that piqued Billy's interest.

The geologist, hunched over a small cup of microwave Easy Mac, glanced up, his eyes bright above the glistening rims of his glasses. "Whumph?" he asked with a full mouth.

James immediately went to him and laid the iPad on the miniature table of the trailer. He put his middle and thumb finger on the screen and spread them, making the image zoom in. He moved it a bit, then repeated the zooming twice until what he'd seen came into view.

"Holy shit," the photographer whispered, the plastic cup of macaroni and cheese tipping over with the weight of the spoon.

In the image of the caldera from the very middle where Billy had stood for most of the time they were at the site, the raptor girl could be seen in the upper left. She was just beyond the rim of the caldera in the tree line, half hidden by large fronds of a fern that hid all but her bust and right arm. Her face and chest were red, absolutely red. Her amber hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail, the long strands hanging over her left shoulder.

"I'll be damned…" Billy said softly, smiling as he cropped the section that the girl was in and copied it into a document to send to Grant. "She followed us."

"Is that blood?" James whined.

Billy shook his head, "You know, for someone as big as you—you sure as hell have a weak stomach."

Rain began to fall in heavy sheets outside the trailer. James attempted a few more times to start a conversation with Billy before calling it a night. Billy shut off all the lights in the trailer, double-checked the lock on the door and every window, made sure that the security system was on and charged before laying in his bunk above James'. He continued to gaze at each image he took, looking for any other signs of the girl. She was unintentionally in four different images: two from the bone yard, one from the compound (she's barely visible in the background when Billy had shot off a few images facing the clearing from inside the lobby) and then clearly in one accidentally on the way back to camp.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Billy, the raptor girl emerged from the jungle. She had been watching since the men returned from the bone yard, keeping an eye out and deciding that it was safe to investigate. Her slender hands reached out in the rain while she walked. Something in her gut panged with familiarity. She'd seen the logo on the side of the trailer before.

"EenGeh," she spoke, her tongue awkwardly twirling in her mouth. She spat, the sensation of her tongue curling against the back of her bottom teeth felt awkward, alien, weird.

Crouching down low to the ground she crawled towards the vehicle, her eyes wandering from each glint of light that bounced off the contours of the trailer. On the ceiling of the bunk where Billy lay half-asleep, a dull light came on for three seconds and then faded, coming on again and fading. He sat up slightly, being pulled from his fatigue-induced daze.

"James…" he whispered, testing the eerie silence. No reply.

The woman slipped off of a small grassy knoll, her feet landing in moist sand. For a moment she wiggled her toes into the grains, contemplating silently what to do next. She walked around the back of the trailer where the bunks were and leaned close to the glass, the windows at the side of the bunks. Her palm pressed against the bottom window, wiping it soundlessly. She peered in but saw nothing due to the curtain over James' window. Standing straighter she leaned in, wiping the rain from the window and peering in.

Billy remained absolutely still. He didn't move, tried not to breathe, didn't blink. His eyes burned from not blinking in so many seconds. She looked right at him, her fingers squeaking dully on the window. Her lips moved, only then did he notice three scars going across the right corner of her mouth, gnarling her lips and cheek. They were deep and puffy, minor keloids spanning from one edge of the scar to the other in small bumps that only slightly hampered her beauty. She was beautiful, and older than Billy would've thought her to be. She must be in her late twenties early thirties.

Her fingers slid over the window, making a far louder squeak than she must have hoped. She jumped back, landing on her backside and sliding off the grass into the sand. Turning over once she got to her feet and crouched down, looking up at the window. Climbing up the grass she ran towards the jungle, disappearing into the foliage.

Billy flopped onto his back panting, smiling uncontrollably.

"That's illegal."

"Yes, I know that," Billy said in agitation, breaking through the InGen firewall. "But I need to find out who she is and how long she's been here. I got a hunch that she's older than we thought—she's been here longer than we thought."

James frowned, sliding a small dish with a crumbled shale beneath a gun that would read the rock and determine the chemical composition. "Where did all this come from? Did you have some great epiphany?"

"Yes, I did. Problem?"

"N-no…" James looked up from the dish, glaring at Billy for a moment, "I think you're hiding something though."

"Not hiding anything."

"Oh really?"

"Yes really. Cool your jets there, buddy,"

"You saw her didn't you?"

"No."

"Yes you did."

Billy raised a brow, looking up from the screen. James glared harder at him until Billy sat back. "Yes, last night I saw her."

"What!" James stood up, knocking rocks onto the metal floor of the trailer.

"Yes, I saw her last night. After you want to bed she came out of the jungle-" he raised his hands to block the protest, "You were sleeping and she was only here for a minute during the storm."

"It rained last night?"

Billy ignored the question, "She looked into your bunk window then looked into mine. Got spooked when her hand slipped on the glass and made a squeaking sound. She fell into the sand and then ran off into the jungle again. That's it."

James shook his head, lifting up rock after rock specimen and setting them back onto a white cloth. "So you saw her up close then?"

Billy nodded.

"And?"

"She's got a scar on her mouth. Well, a few scars. Some deep ones on the right corner of her mouth. Don't know what they're from, but they're pretty gnarled. Her eyes are light colored too—couldn't see what color in the night though. We need to find out who she is…"


	6. Chapter 6

The following day after the woman investigated Billy and James' camp, the boys filtered through reproduced InGen logs that, at this point, were some 20 or so years old. James was skeptical that the logs were even true—if InGen had no problem hiding site B from the investors or that they had begun to create males AND females. He was almost positive that they wouldn't find anything.

By seven that night, James came across a weekly newspaper that circulated the compound and living quarters of the scientists housed on the island. Within the thirteen page spread was a large article on the mysterious disappearing of a 15 year old girl.

"Alan, listen to this," Billy began, lifting the paper up to see it better in the dull orange light of the trailer, "Rhodes reported his 15 year old daughter missing in the early morning of October 19th. Lily Rhodes was last seen in the atrium with William Holt, the 17 year old son of Carley Holt. Holt has been held for questioning in the disappearance. Search teams went out on the evening of October the 19th and will continue until Rhodes has been found."

Alan sat back, the video chat screen buzzing with interference, "What year was that?"

"1996," James piped in, pulling out a microwave dinner for himself.

"She's 29, Alan," Billy said softly, flipping through the paper. He folded the paper over and held it up for Alan to see the small mug-shot like picture of the girl. She grinned in the image, but it was evident that she did not want to be photographed. "That was her then… and," Billy brought up image sharing on the laptop, then clicked on the image of raptor girl—aka Lily Rhodes—from the bone yard when she was covered in blood. "This is her now."

A few moments of silence passed before Alan spoke, "Billy… what are your intentions with her?"

Billy sighed heavily. He was given specific instructions to keep his and InGen's plans a complete secret. "They want contact with her. I am to 'collect the specimen,'" he said in a mocking tone, "they want to bring her back to the mainland headquarters for testing. That's all they told me."

The paleontologist on the other end of the video chat nodded his head, his lips pursed in agitation. Oh how he loathed that company which nearly ended him. "How much?"

James lifted his eyes from his meal as Billy lowered his head, gazing down at the keyboard of the laptop. "Enough," Billy finally said.

Alan nodded, "You call me if you need me."

He ended the video chat session before Billy could even think of something to respond with. James spooned another mouthful of the cheap chicken alfredo into his gullet, looking at Billy.

Lily scaled the tree that she'd called home—or at least thought it to be the safest place she knew—and nestled beneath a car hood that she used as an overhang. Rain began to fall again for the fifth time that day, only now it was a cold, long rain that would last most of the night.

She lay on the mattress that she'd recently re-furbished with a hospital type blanket found in the compound, sewn closed with agave threads. She curled up, rolling from one side to the other before flipping onto her toned stomach. Her arm stretched up above her head, dangling over the branches that came off of the trunk in her tree. Cool rain fell onto her hand, dripping off her fingertips and her long, strong fingernails. Below her, under the fronds of a number of ferns and ancestors of the great-leafed ginkos, the raptors that she knew as her family curled up to sleep.

Bored, unable to sleep, shivering and hungry, she reached blindly into a tattered backpack that was so warn it barely held its contents and removed a few outer layers of Cohune palm. The layers came from right around the heart of the palm and helped keep her teeth clean and strong. It was sweet, made her tongue tingle, and when it got stuck between her teeth, she could grab some fibers and pull them through almost like floss.

She chewed on the Cohune palm for a while, listening to the sounds of Stegosaurs migrating from the north side of the island to the south where they went to breed. They bellowed lowly, so low that she felt the tree vibrate and shake the water free of its mossy bulk. The ground rumbled with their harmonious marching, something she'd grown so used to that it became almost a lullaby. She got the best night's sleep when the Brachiosaurs, Diplodocus, Stegosaurs and Trikes were on the move.

In the morning, before the sun rose, Lily was back on the ground collecting strawberries for herself before going on a hunt. Just like each morning, she hunted with the raptors. It was her duty to provide along with the alphas, not because she was considered an equal, but because she had to continuously show her worth.

There were three days out of the 12 years she'd lived with the raptors that she wasn't able to produce a kill. On those days, she was tormented, cast out of the troop and left for dead.

The first time she had tried for a Corythosaur infant, missed the kill shot and ended up alerting the entire valley of hadrosaurs. No one in the troop ate that day. It was the night she'd been clawed on the face, left in the jungle. Two weeks later she presented a kill to the troop: a pregnant deer. They let her back into the troop, but she wasn't allowed to feed from their kills. For two years she hunted for herself and ate for herself—unless of course a raptor showed interest in her meal. In which case, she would have to back down or face violent retaliation.

The second time she did not make a kill was dealt with in a less aggressive manner, but only because a virus had claimed half of the troop. They needed her, and they knew it.

The third time, most recently—about three weeks before the strange men came to the island—she missed killing a boar by two inches. The poison dart landed instead in a stump and made such a sound that the family of warthogs squealed, alerting a nearby buck and doe of her presence. For the following two weeks, every kill that she made was stripped of all meat until there was nothing left for her but bones and ligament.

Now though, with a new female alpha, she was back in the pack and working with them for every kill. After taking down a young stegosaurus the pack sat down to eat. Years of eating raw meat had hardened her stomach, so much so that she rarely ever suffered from an upset stomach. She ate the stegosaur flesh and ate well, so well that she wouldn't eat for the rest of the day.

At high noon she ventured due east to a spring where she sat on the smooth river rocks, letting the cool water cleanse her body. Before leaving, an hour or so after she arrived, Lily caught a catfish, a gnarly big one that liked a murky offshoot of the spring. Only once or twice had she caught a catfish in the pond, but whenever she did, she never ate it. Catching the fish for her was more of a test.

Lily was curious about the fish and how it was able to, when set down on the bank, find its way right back into the pond as it had been meant to find its way back. She watched it flop around and then use its fin to push itself into the water where it disappeared into the murkiness.

Billy sliced the apple into eight wedges and rubbed lemon on each side so it wouldn't brown. He arranged them on a paper plate, then set an open granola bar on the plate beside the apples. He covered the plate with another plate, walked outside and set the plate down on the grass beside the trailer.

When he went back inside, he made sure that the surveillance cameras on the trailer were positioned on the gift for the raptor girl—assuming that she'd return to investigate their campsite again.

There were three days left on the island for them to do what had been asked of them. Billy was reluctant to get the girl; he was worried that again he'd do something horrible with _the best intentions._ He couldn't screw up as he had in the past. This, if anything, was a chance for the paleontologist/photographer to get his name back out there in a good light.

He had to keep everything, the entire operation, absolutely under wraps. Within InGen there had been quite some displeasure at the mere thought of taking a jungle woman from her home with the raptors and bring her back to safe civilization. It was almost a 50/50 split between the employees at InGen: half wanted the girl to come back to the mainland where she could get tested, maybe even rehabilitated, and have her story be the basis for helping InGen crawl out of bankruptcy while the other half wanted to take a humanitarian 'Amazonian aborigine' type approach where she would be left along, monitored remotely via satellite and have absolutely no more contact with anyone that isn't native to the island—ie: no human contact.

"Is this going to work?" James asked, skeptical that the girl would even take the food.

Billy nodded, stepping up into the trailer and smiling, "Absolutely. If she will take this, we can harmlessly give the sedative and get her back to the mainland without a hitch."

"Nothing is ever that easy, Billy."

His deep hazel, army-green eyes turned up to the geologist. His Adam's apple bobbed as he nodded, swallowing hard. "I know."


	7. Chapter 7

He breathed slowly, cautiously. Though he was many layers of insulation, metal and fiberglass away from her, he knew that the moment she was aware they watched—she would leave. He couldn't have her leave. He wanted to research her till the sun stopped shining.

She was there by the apples. Crouched over like a Hollywood barbarian, cautiously and carefully inspecting the paper plates. When the top paper plate flew off the bottom, skittering across the grass she immediately withdrew. She jumped back, vocalizing something unintelligible and crouched even closer to the grass. Billy felt a pang in the base of his skull, near the back of his throat. He was attracted to her, and seeing her curiosity for the everyday things that she'd once been familiar with only made him more interested in knowing everything about her.

Scooting closer to the plate of apples, she looked around, paused to look back into the jungle, and then sat on one buttock. With her leg tucked under her body, the other bent so that her knee touched her chest, she reached out to touch a wedge of apple. Biting into a wedge she stopped moving, absolutely froze for a few moments.

Billy rippled with satisfaction. All this time he'd been banking on the fact that she had to remember what eating an apple was like. As she chewed slower, she began to smile. He watched and grinned wide—she shivered and popped the rest of the wedge into her mouth. Devouring the apple, she chewed with an open mouth, chunks of apple flying from her mouth. She grabbed the plate and lifted it, looking beneath it for… more. He was sure that she wanted more.

James came up behind Billy, gazing into the surveillance screen where the woman—Lily—inspected the granola bar. He laughed quietly, "She liked the apples?"

Billy smacked James' arm, making the motion of zipping his lips.

It was too late though; she'd heard something or seen the trailer rock on its supports. She ran into the jungle at a full sprint, carrying the granola bar in her left hand.

"She's got a great ass," James commented.

Billy glared at him, turning to walk back to a stack to the dining table where his iPad waited for him.

The following morning Billy and James headed out to get their last possible encounter with Lily Rhodes, the jungle girl. The men suited up for a big hike in the jungle: their socks high, boots laced tight, backpacks strapped to their bodies, hanging on their shoulders. James had his sample kit with him, deciding that the day was as good as any to collect as many samples as possible.

In total, they'd been on the island for two weeks—two short weeks. Billy had over ten-thousand images saved on flash drives to go through entirely when they return to the mainland while James had over two-hundred sketches of the fauna and flora of Isla Sorna along with hundreds of samples of rock, soil and water to test back in his lab. James, though he had a wonderful time on the island and was glad to have taken the opportunity, wanted nothing more than to be completely out of danger and off the island. Billy, if possible, would've stayed two weeks more for the sake of research—of course. He was, admittedly, sick of being in danger and having to watch his back, carry a gun and be ready to lob smoke grenades at any moment to get out of danger with the raptors (it was the least invasive way of dealing with the raptors in that situation).

From Magdelina Tip where their camp was, they hiked three miles south to the center of the island—the meadow where the hadrosaurs grazed. Billy, again, filled a memory card and a half before the two of them continued on the outskirts of the meadow near the tree line. Once they'd rounded the inlet of the Sea of Brasso and were headed towards the old Rex Nest site, they stopped.

"Do you hear that, James?" Billy asked, his hand lifting to shoulder level to stop his team member while he tilted his head and listened.

The men stood as still as possible while the sounds of the jungle seeped into them. Far off the sound of groaning echoed, not the sound of an animal groaning in agony, but a human in agony. The sound hushed the jungle. Suddenly, the sounds of the dinosaurs weren't quite as loud or prominent or even as bone chilling as they'd been before.

"Its Lily," Billy whispered and bounded off in the direction of the groaning.

James struggled to keep up with Billy as he ran through the jungle. Only twice did Billy stop to listen and change course. The groaning was coming from somewhere in the San Fernando Mountain Range, much farther from the North raptor troop's home than he'd have expected. The groaning was louder and drawn out now.

After a few hundred yards Billy stopped to set his pack down, carefully and quietly, before looking back at James. He mouthed 'stay here' as he walked to a bunch of undergrowth that was moving. He could see the outline of her body faintly.

Lily lay curled in a ball, the stench of vomit permeating the otherwise sweet smell of the blooming jungle flowers. She wailed, rolling onto her back, holding her stomach. He knelt beside her and held some of the leaves away from her. She was drenched with sweat, forehead felt like hot coals, her cheeks and chest was flushed and she shivered almost violently. She was in such pain that she didn't even know he was there.

He looked back at James and then down at Lily. Billy leaned down, his hands sliding under her legs and then her shoulders. He grunted, sat up and then stood with her in his arms. James came running, looking down at her.

"I'm stronger than you, let me carry her," he nodded to Billy and took the woman, only he positioned most of her weight on his shoulder. It was a little more than four miles to camp and carrying her princess style would wear out his arms far sooner than he'd like to admit.

Billy collected their packs and led the way, retracing their steps back to camp. On the way, Lily vomited all over James' back three times, heaving for many minutes at a time though nothing but foamy stomach fluid came up. She groaned, sobbing in agony as she convulsed and wailed louder, utterly unaware of what was going on around her.

James carried her into the trailer, setting her onto a medical trailer that dropped down from the side of the trailer. She cried out, screeching as she doubled over on the metal table, immediately vomiting green stomach fluid onto the table and the trailer floor.

"The sedative!" Billy said, grabbing her shoulders to steady her shaking.

James grabbed the unlabeled bottle from a medicine cabinet above the table, removing a syringe as well. He tipped the small bottle upside down, plunged the uncapped needle through the plastic stopper and into the bottle. He drew out the sedative until a red Sharpied line that was labeled with a white tag that read 'No more, no less than this line.'

"Did they think we're stupid? Couldn't they just tell us what the fuck was in this and a number of how much to give her?" James said in frustration, taking over holding Lily down while Billy plunged the needle into her hip and pushed down the plunger.

Lily screamed, pushing at the men and kicking, the pressure of the injection making her shake. She struggled, kicking and shaking, her eyes rolling to the back of her head before in one final breath she arched. Her back arched high, eyes wide and unfocused, more glazed over than anything either of the men had ever seen. She breathed shallowly, one drawn out exhale that resulted in her body falling flat and motionless on the table.


	8. Chapter 8

Draped in cloth, Lily lay motionless the entire flight back the mainland. Billy had been elected unbeknownst to himself when he signed the waiver for the trip to be the escort for any and all living specimens. He was to accompany Lily to the InGen headquarters and then throughout her testing. He would be housed within close proximity to the specimen so that he could be available for questioning throughout her possible rehabilitation. People had her hooked up to an IV and were still drawing blood to be tested.

One of the nurses on the flight mentioned that she possibly suffered from food poisoning-severe food poisoning. When I mentioned seeing her covered in blood that was not her own, the nurse gathered that she most likely had a high protein, mostly raw meat diet.

"Is that even possible for a human?" James asked from behind Billy, perched awkwardly in a luxury 1st class seat. Even though he was fit, his long muscular legs still didn't fit right into the seat.

The nurse nodded, attaching stickers to the woman's bare chest, neck, on her temple and her upper back for her vitals. "Humans can adapt to almost anything if given a long enough span of which to get used to it. She probably started off on the island eating whatever she could find at the compounds, but the compounds weren't exactly stocked properly. There were more munitions in case of an escape than there was food. I imagine she would've begun to hunt early on." The woman unhooked an empty bag of saline, replacing it with another one. "Her stomach probably went into shock from the apple. And we found pieces of thin white plastic… did she have any candy?"

Billy lowered his head and blush, obviously ashamed that he'd played some part in getting their 'specimen,' a harmless woman sick. James kicked the back of Billy's seat, "He gave her a granola bar."

The nurse nodded, a few strands of bleached blond hair slipping out of a loose ponytail, "That's it alright. Seems like she didn't know how to open the granola bar and just bit right into it-that could contribute to her upset stomach. No worries though, boys. She'll be fine."

A nine-thirty in the morning, their plane landed in San Diego, California where they were received by a escort from the medical labs. Billy and James parted after a few kind words, some nonchalant exchange and a 'bro hug' before Billy disappeared with the unconscious Lily and two paramedics into an unmarked ambulance. James was escorted off of the tarmac, loaded into a blacked out Suburban where he was driven back to Berkeley to study the samples in his own lab.

Billy loathed being led around like a corporate puppy, which is exactly what position he found himself in. Along with the paramedics in the ambulance, there was a man with a clip-board, a fancy-ass name tag that glinted brightly-a reminder that Billy had played a part to remove Lily from her natural environment.

Alan's words surged through his mind, _You're no better than the rest of them._ Billy leaned over after buckling to the side of the ambulance, feeling suddenly nauseas.

"Tell me as much as you possibly can about Lily," the man said, sternly looking at him though Billy would never know it. The man wore horribly dark sunglasses, an authoritative gesture used only to remind Billy that he had even less control over the situation than he ever thought previously.

The question rippled through Billy, making the skin on his neck and arms prickle with goose flesh. At the beginning of the excursion when he was first recruited for the trip, the company had told him that the woman was absolutely unknown and that she must be captured and identified. As far as Billy knew, the only person other than James who knew about Lily and her name, how they found out her name, was Alan. Alan was one of those people that can be trusted with anything: he would take a secret to the grave and the end of all existence. It certainly wasn't Alan, Billy could be certain of that.

"How the hell did you get her name?" Billy growled, his fingers rubbing his temples in rough, jerky circles.

The man smiled, "I'm sorry, Brennan, but that's highly classified information. Please, go on with as much information as possible."

Billy sat back, looking at the man, "And what if I don't disclose such information?"

The man sat back as well, flipping the clipboard over. "You know exactly what happens if you don't cooperate."

"What about her?"

"You also know the answer to that question."

Billy looked at Lily laying strapped to the table, the pained expression having long gone from her hardened yet beautiful features. His hazel-green eyes lifted to the man's sunglasses. He adjusted his wire-rimmed glasses and sighed quietly, "The raptors have accepted her into their troop. The north troop of raptors are rivaled against the southern troop-the same troop that I'd come into contact with the last time I was on Isla Sorna …"

"William Brennan, please report to room 9. Brennan, room 9. Thank you."

He turned over in his bed that reminded him of a prison-not like he'd ever been in a prison (okay there was one time in college where Billy participated in a protest that ended with 16 students being incarcerated). The metal bed was like a large shelf that jutted out of a peachy-salmon painted brick wall and was topped with a thick, refreshingly lush mattress; though, the mattress did nothing for his back which ached that morning so bad he thought he'd be sore forever. The floor had tiles which had to be some sort of linoleum made to look like marble. Billy knew better than to think it was real marble. The room had a private toilet behind a separating wall with a stainless steel wash basin next to the privacy wall. On the other side of the privacy wall was a shower head hanging over a slightly indented tile floor with a drain at the center. A narrow rod spanned from one wall to the other, a dull yellow cloth curtain hanging from the rod. Across from the table was an out of place round edged oak dresser where he was disturbed to find that his clothes were folded so neatly it must've been mechanical and then ordered into the dressers by type of clothing, then color. Even his boxers were folded neatly.

He dressed, almost positive that someone in some room was watching and monitoring him at all times. As he stepped into the hallway, closing the door behind him, he clipped a nametag to the collar of his deep cobalt blue button up shirt.

"William Brennan, please report to room 9 immediately. Brennan, room 9."

The voice was a bit more stern this time, unforgiving. He hurried down the hall to where he remembered the interrogation rooms being located. It was a north-west hall, lined with doors and large four-by-six windows which had to be two-ways.

He got to room nine where an armed man stood beside the door. He nodded at Brennan, checking his nametag for clearance before opening the door. The rooms must have been soundproof, because only when the door was opened did he realize that someone inside was screaming bloody murder. Though, as he entered, the screaming stopped.

"Thank God, she wouldn't stop screaming. We can't even get close enough to sedate her without using a dart gun. You must calm her," the woman was the same one who'd paged him over the intercom.

Billy looked at Lily, her body bruised from thrashing about so violently. He felt sorry for her, wanting to cradle her and comfort her but knowing that without human contact for so many years, she was probably a little more than a typical 'rogue'. He smiled at Lily and waved.

The raptor girl was strapped to a chair and wore a hospital smock. Her once ratty auburn hair was combed, brushed and clean—absolutely silken. They must have cut her hair as well; the once long and flowing dread-like rods of thick hair were now gone, replaced by tight deep red waves that were no longer than chin-length. She almost resembled a 20's flapper with her wildly curled hair. Her eyes were on him, locked intently on his face, a glimmer of recognition in her pale grey-blue eyes.

He smiled at her, nearly unable to contain his excitement when she gave him a quarter-smile in return. The woman frowned and set her things down on the metal table, "You can handle her. I'm going on my break."


	9. Chapter 9

Her slender left hand lifted as he pulled the Velcro strap up, the sound making her grunt and flinch. She sank further into the chair as if to get away from him, curling up tight in her seat while he stepped cautiously around her to do the same with the other side. The moment he un-Velcroed the other wrist she pushed back, the metal chair tipping back with the intensity of her push.

Billy jumped back and out of the way, sighing as she screeched-her head colliding with the wall behind her. She whined, hissing at him as she reached down to un-Velcro her ankles. Scrambling to her feet she ran to the door and pushed against it, grasping the handle and twisting furiously. He winced, leaning against the wall while she screamed at the door, yanking so hard on the handle that he was almost positive that she would break it off of the frame.

The interrogation room's intercom speaker hummed, clicking as static died off. "Brennan, can you try and keep her from hurting herself. The room is basically indestructible, but she isn't. We need her whole."

Billy looked at the large glass window and nodded his head. All he saw was a reflection of his tired aging self, staring into the glass as if waiting for the faces of those outside to magically appear before him. He turned back to the woman who looked at him, absolutely petrified-so much so that she literally shook against the crook of the door jamb and adjacent wall.

He did not move, did not make a sound. His breathing was cool, calm, and so shallow that he barely knew that he was breathing himself. Carefully, quietly, he leaned back against the wall, staring at her.

Her breathing grew ragged as her hisses and screeches (which gave Billy the chills for how similar to the raptor's calls they were) wore out her throat. She gasped like a fish out of water, wheezing sickly. She gripped the door handle which had broken off with her ferocity like a hammer, tapping the ragged side against the metal door. He couldn't imagine how frightened she was, the entire scene was heartbreaking.

He slowly slid down the wall until he was sitting with his legs out in front of him, his pants bunching around his upper thighs almost painfully. "Lily Rhodes."

The room fell silent, the only sound other than his steady breathing was his heart humming in his chest, ears, he could even feel the lively beat in his fingertips. He slowly looked up, his eyes following the contour lines of the tile floor until her toned, slender frame finally came into view. She tilted her head to the side, her eyes large almost glistening as she looked right at him. Lily recognized her name. So he said it again. And again. Each time he said it she leaned forward, lips twitching, eyes gazing through him.

"Lily," he said with a smile, looking at her with a slight nod, "Rhodes. Lily Rhodes."

She tilted her head to the side, clambering onto her knees and crawling over to him. Much like those she'd lived with for the last 8 years or more, she came close to him. Very slowly she parted her lips, her tongue flicking her teeth, clicking wetly behind her lips. She slowed as she neared his extended feet and leaned down, literally sniffing him. He smirked, watching her smell his shoes.

Twitching his foot, she jumped back, screeching loudly as if to call her raptor family that in this situation would never call. She glared at him, her legs tucked under her body, arms out on either side to stabilize herself as she cautiously hopped closer again. She genuinely wanted to investigate him, he only hoped that everyone was watching outside. Billy was almost positive that he couldn't reproduce such a scenario of they didn't catch it. Then again, the entire compound had cameras literally on every corner, there had to be a few if not more than a few in the interrogation room. They just got sneakier since this compound had more people and less dinosaurs. People are always harder to keep track of.

"Lily," he said to her while she leaned down again to smell his shoe. He said her name three more times before she looked up from inspecting the folds in his pants around his ankles.

Her blue-grey eyes locked on his as he spoke, as if she could somehow learn to say her own name through staring into his eyes. Her tongue continued to dance behind her teeth until she spoke, a tiny croak of a word. He nodded his head slowly. She backed up a half-step and sat on her heels, kneeling beside him, so close that he could smell the honey shampoo they'd used to wash her hair.

He smiled, "Li-ly." Breaking her name into syllables seemed to help, she spoke it quietly. He nodded and said it again. "Lily Rhodes. Lily."

His repetition was working.

She looked down, touching her jaw and then her lips, speaking louder and then louder until she nearly yelled it at him, "Lily!"

Billy smiled and nodded, "You're Lily. I am Billy." He pointed to her, making her flinch but remain close. "Lily," he let it set in before putting his palm flat onto his chest, "Billy." He nodded and repeated it three times before she swatted his hand away while he pointed.

"Rude," she grumbled lowly, pushing his hand away with the back of her hand. "Billy rude."

He laughed and set his hand down for a few moments before lifting it again, pointing at her. She smacked his hand and jumped back while she yelled, "Rude!"

The intercom clicked on, "Good, keep it up Brennan."

Lily spun around, standing and looking at the corners of the room, searching for where it came from. "Rude!" She said again, looking into the mirror and pausing. Her head tilted to the side as she stared at herself. "Lily…" she whispered, her lips hanging open just slightly. Lifting her hand she ran her fingertips over the raised scars on her face, a pained expression filling her eyes.

On the other side of the wall stood the nurse who'd been caring for Lily, a psychologist, current CEO of InGen Naomi Wilder and a speech pathologist. They stared into the raptor girl's eyes as she looked into the mirror and spoke, her quiet voice the only sound in the hallway outside.

Wilder turned to the nurse, a diamond encrusted Tennis bracelet clanking as it hit the wall when she turned. Her maroon dress suit paired with her long wavy hair made her look sultry, but the sharp hook at the corners of each jaw and the downward turn of her nose made mulled over the sultry aspect of her appearance to give her a harsh look. Her narrow deep caramel eyes glared at the nurse-she always glared-as she spoke, "Progress, correct?"

The nurse nodded when the speech pathologist barged into the conversation, "Tremendous progress, Wilder. You see, she still possesses the same vocabulary that she had when she was first missing on the island, it has just been locked away in reserve. Her communication skills have dulled tremendously, but with any hope, she'll rehabilitate in no time. Refreshing her memory of basic words and commands is of course of the most importance."

"The fact that she still associates pointing at someone with being rude is a fantastic development or rather, re-development," the psychologist began. "It seems that she's building a trusting relationship with Brennan. The fact that she came to him is tremendous, she already trusts him and probably trusted him long before she returned to the main land."

Wilder nodded her head, lifting a hand close against her waist while the elbow of her other nudged into the crook of her side, hand curling to rest under her pointy chin. Her eyes searched Lily's, who remained at the mirror, fingers hurriedly pushing over her smooth deeply tanned skin. The CEO couldn't find a single imperfection in her flesh that didn't make the Amazonian all the more beautiful-even the gnarled scar on her face was beautiful in some way or the other.

"Let's break for lunch. Give her a lunch in the room, I want Brennan debriefed. Give him what he wants, we need him more than I thought," turning on her heels she walked down the hall with an irritating _clickity-clack_ of the witch-toed high heels adorning her bony feet.


	10. Chapter 10

He crossed his arms over his chest, his eyes following her hands in the room. Her slender fingers would move from her mouth down to the plate of fresh food, all berries that the botanist was positive was on the island. Everything on her plate of food was indigenous plant-life to Isla Sorna. Since bringing back a dinosaur for her to eat would be next to impossible, especially since Customs had been watching InGen like a hawk since the San Diego incident. She ate berries and clovers, some roots and tubers along with gnawing occasionally on a stick of sugarcane.

"Ask her about how she's been living-it will all be recorded. Ask her anything you can think of that you think she may be able to disclose. Ask her what happened to her, how she went missing, why she has the scars… remember, she has the vocabulary of a 15 year old," the psychologist told Billy.

Billy nodded, looked at the team and smiled, "Don't worry about it. I got this."

He stepped into the room slowly, watching her and how she watched him. Her eating slowed; she chewed on a berry slowly, the ripe reddish blue juices running over the smooth carved cupid's bow of her lips. Looking up at him she didn't flinch or move away as he took a seat across from her on the table. The unscarred corner of her mouth twitched into a half smile.

"Lily," he began with a friendly smile, "do you know how old you are?"

The woman stopped, looked down at her plate. She lifted her hands, gazing down at them and moving her fingers. Her fingers touched her thumb moving from index to pinky on each finger for a few moments until she looked up at him and mouthed something. Coughing she cleared her throat and said louder than she seemed to have meant, "29?"

Billy nodded his head, "That's what we figured out. Do you remember when you went missing?"

"Missing?" she said and shook her head, popping a squash blossom into her mouth. She shook her head, "I wasn't missing."

He frowned and crossed his hands in front of himself on the table, leaning forward just a bit. "According to all of the reports, you went missing in October of 1996. Do you remember any of that? If you don't remember, that's fine. But we'd like to figure out what happened, so your cooperation would be much appreciated."

"I wasn't missing. I was left behind," she said with such conviction that a chill ran down Billy's spine. Goosebumps rose all over his body making his scalp and shoulders tingle as the hairs rose. "They left me, I was not missing. Missing would mean that they I was taken or lost. None of that happened, they simply left me behind. "

Billy sat back in his chair, his arms crossing over his chest while he looked at her. Brows furrowed, he brooded. Not only could she speak and speak well, but she seemed to know exactly what happened to her. The illusion of a barbaric jungle girl that had no idea what was going on or what had happened to her was absolutely false in her case. He admired her for being able to communicate far better than any of the people at InGen thought possible. She just kept surprising everyone.

"Who left you behind?" he asked carefully, making sure that his tone was polite and unthreatening.

Lily looked up from her plate of food, "My friends-well I thought they were my friends anyway. Holt, Nina and me were playing hide-and-go-seek shipping containers behind the compound. It was my turn as seeker and then when I looked for them, they were gone. I couldn't find them anywhere and then I saw a raptor investigating so, I didn't want to go back to the compound to get cut off by the raptors. I just ran and ran. Had to climb into a tree when a rex came around. I don't remember how long I was in the tree, but when I came down there was a fire and then a big old boat crashing into the beach and… I watched the rexes walk out of the boat. I couldn't understand why they would send rexes back on a boat.

"When I came back to the compound, there were bodies everywhere. I couldn't find my mom and I couldn't find Holt or Nina or Marcy from the kitchen. I was alone," she said softly, her voice cracking while she looked down at her hands.

Billy smiled, satisfied. He sighed contentedly, "You can speak remarkably well. For someone who'd lived with raptors for so long, you're still remarkably human."

"Do you think I chose to live with the raptors?"

Billy shrugged, "It's a possibility."

"Why would anyone in their right mind choose to live with raptors?"

"I'm not sure. Did you?"

"I had no other choice."

"Really?"

"Of course. The rexes don't screw around with the raptors, nor do the spines, trikes or stegos. Everything that could hurt me didn't mess with the raptors. I had no other choice than to live with them and it took forever to get close to them," she shook her head. "It made sense. It sucked, too. I lived most of the time on my own in the compound where I found the library. Maybe that's why I can talk, I read to myself aloud. The same books, over and over and over. I read every book in the library at least four times-even the ones I didn't like at all."

"That's amazing…"

"Is it? The raptors didn't like when I'd come back from the compound. Found out that the best way to hide the fact that I'd been there was to cover up with mud. The mud also helped with the bugs," Lily nodded.

"What happened to your face?" Billy boldly asked, kicking himself for being so straightforward without a buffering sentence or anything.

Her eyes narrowed, brows furrowed, "Rude." He laughed, she smiled a bit and went on, "The raptors are sticklers about hunting. Everyone hunts in the pack, even when we're full-we hunt. I didn't get a kill one time and I paid for it. The alpha male at the time, I called him Angus because the green and red markings on his neck reminded me of plaid-a real Scotsman. He attacked my face, something that they do to people who don't provide for the pack. Most of the raptors have some sort of marking on their mouths. He clawed my face up and I wasn't allowed back in for a long while, only after I'd made a satisfactory kill was I allowed back in. Scarred up nicely, I hadn't seen it until I looked at myself in that glass thing," she nodded at the window of the interrogation room. "Some of the raptors still didn't accept me, but after something bad happened to wipe out most of the raptors, some sort of sickness, they needed me and the times of marking those who didn't hunt was over."

He nodded, rocking back and forth slightly. "You have quite the story to tell."

Lily shrugged her shoulders and smiled, only one side of her face seeming to cooperate. "May I finish my meal, first?"

Billy nodded and scooted out of his seat, exiting the room. In the hallway he turned to Wilder who stood by, a wicked grin on her lips. Immediately after the door clicked closed, the security light above the door turning a bright green, she began to verbally unload on him.

"You must get absolutely every shred of information that she has. Get her to tell you everything, what her life is like, what she eats, how she eats, anecdotes from a hunt-anything you can get. Ask her what books she read, how many of them, how did she deal with growing up in the jungle? Did she ever get sick? We want it all."

Billy frowned a bit, "What are you doing, Wilder? You want a book deal or maybe a documentary on her?"

Lily sat back and pushed her plate forward, finished with her vegetarian meal. He stepped back, "I'll see what I can do, but if you don't measure up to the contract, I'm taking your ass to court."

"Not like you could win," Wilder said as the door closed behind him.

He shook his head as he took a seat in front of her again. "Would you like anything?"

Lily nodded, "Can we move somewhere more comfortable? And can I get some clothes-maybe something loose and comfortable?

He looked back over his shoulder at the window, raising a brow. "You heard her."

"Who heard me?"

"You really don't want to know."


	11. Chapter 11

Speaking with Lily would be much more difficult than expected in her current state: the woman slept curled up on the couch provided in a room attached to what was supposed to eventually become her room while she recuperated. He looked around the room and then rose, watching her carefully while he backed out of the room. He himself was absolutely starved.

She slept soundlessly, propped up on the arm of the couch by her own folded arms, her legs tucked tight beneath her body. When she'd finished dressing in a sweater and a pair of one size too big jeans, her demeanor changed immediately. It must be nice to wear clothes, or things that cover and protect the body.

Once outside he shrugged Wilder off long enough to locate the cafeteria. The dining hall, which was about the size of a few New York sized Starbucks connected to form one open cavity, held more people than should be capable and smelled of burnt coffee mixed with old macaroni and cheese. He grabbed a tray and ran it along the metal bars, looking over the food. For so long he'd been eating microwaved dishes brought to you by Hungryman or Banquet-not even the good kind of frozen dinners.

By the time he paid for his "meal" the tray weighted so much that he had to carry it with two hands, smelled sickeningly delicious. He'd grabbed some white rice, a cucumber salad with sesame ginger dressing, a spicy tuna sushi roll, an eel roll, a salmon and avocado roll, shrimp and vegetable tempura and a bowl of green tea ice cream. Whoever invented the Japanese section of the buffet should be given some sort of award, not only because it was his favorite type of food, but from the looks of it-it was well made. It cost him $23 but when the woman asked to see his ID, she immediately let him pass without paying as if he were some sort of infamous superstar. He didn't mind the star treatment to be honest and though she looked at him oddly, he didn't care at all.

He sat down in the rear of the dining room at a two person table that was free of people, crumbs or otherwise. Halfway through his meal James, of all people, sat at the table. The geologist looked nervous, afraid, something must be wrong.

"Billy, you need to get Lily back to the island," he said softly, eyes slightly frantic.

"And why is that? They're just getting her to talk."

"People don't want her here at all, Billy. The other day in the Suburban I heard the guys up front talking about her. One of them said that they were going to kill her and do tests on her body and another said they've got a deal already with Discovery channel or something to do a huge special on her including all of these horrible tests. They only want to exploit her for money. But that's not the worst of it, Billy," he said nearly panting, struggling to keep his voice down with how fast he was talking.

"Oh?" Billy mumbled between bites of his shrimp tempura.

"No, that's not it!" the enthusiastic and 20 years his junior geologist really made Billy feel excited at times-even if it was for a mediocre, non-exciting thing. This, however, seemed genuine. "InGen bought out another corporation and are using the name of the other corporation to open a new dinosaur park on Santa Catalina Island. They're already bought the land from the government and are getting the rights to build."

Billy's chopsticks fell to the tabletop, his jaw hanging open.

Lily paced back and forth in the living room attached to her soon-to-be bedroom. She pounded on the walls, groaning and constantly whining lowly under her breath. Her eyes were wide, red and frantic, roiling with tears that threatened to fall. The living room was a total wreck: the couch was flipped over, cushions strewn across the room, a glass coffee table was shattered, the lampshade from the only lamp in the room had a hole punched in it, the blinds were twisted-a few ripped from the hangers.

Billy, still shaken by what James had told him in the cafeteria, ran as fast as he could through the halls. The intercom buzzed frantically as a woman, possibly the psychologist based on the lazy drawl signifying her Texan hailing, who called him to her room.

As he got close, two men and the psychologist ran to him, guiding him the rest of the way.

"She's gone absolutely mad!" said the psychologist, "I think she's having a psychotic break. Too much stimuli."

"Someone has to pay for everything in that Goddamn room!" the man in the business suit said.

The security guard stepped in, holding his hands up, "They wouldn't let me taze her."

"I fucking wonder why…" Billy said, pushing past him and opening the door.

Immediately he was hit with a long strip of white blinds, causing a welt that crossed his jaw and stung his ear. He cupped it and stepped back, slamming the door shut before she could run out. Instead, she ran flush into him, smacking him back against the wall.

Pushing against him she smacked and clawed, her nails popping a button as she fought him, screaming loud. "Let me out! I need to get out!" she stared at him, "Out! Move!" She grabbed the handle of the door and rattled it until he grabbed her shoulders hard, pulling her from the door. He was surprised at how strong she was, how easily she fought against him. He certainly wasn't the Rock, but he had quite a bit of strength and she seemed to have quite a bit more.

She pushed him off of her, "Let me out, Billy."

Her growl shook him. He regained his balance, shaking his head, "You can't leave, Lily. I can't help you. I have no authority in what happens to you. Do you get that?"

"Of course, I do. I'm not stupid!"

He looked down at his feet, sighing softly, "I know you're not. You know that's not what I meant-what I'm saying is that you have to stay here and cooperate until they let you go."

"Will they?" she threw her hands down, walking over the glass as if it didn't faze her at all, her bare feet leaving bloody footprints over the carpet as she crossed to the window. She pulled the blinds and pointed out, "Where am I?"

"You're going to need a band aid."

"I'm fine. Answer me."

"San Diego, California."

Her head slowly turned back to the window where she looked out at the ocean from the naval complex where the compound was located. She shook slightly, her shoulders trembling. A few blinks and she started to slump over. Billy was there before she hit the ground. The door opened and in came the security guard followed by a nurse with a small carrying case filled with medical supplies.

Billy carried her through a door into Lily's bedroom where he laid her down on the bed. He looked over at the nurse, "What happened to her?"

"Sensory overload, her mind probably just shut down," she said and went to working on Lily's feet. She went about taking a tweezer to the glass chunks in her foot, collecting them in a small plastic dish much like a short pill bottle.

He looked down, realizing that he'd been stroking her temple with her head in his lap. Clearing his throat, he gently laid her down, moving to lean against a dresser and cross his arms over his chest-his signature stance. "How do we get her to adapt better to all the stimuli?"

The woman shook her head, gently padding a swab with alcohol on the bottoms of Lily's feet. Her toes twitched as the woman added healing antibiotic ointment to the wounded soles. In a matter of moments, her calloused feet were wrapped in gauze. The nurse moved up to check her vitals, "Her blood pressure is a little high… I would say that maybe a valium could help her out, but we don't know how her body would react to it. I'm guessing that she'll get just as sick if not more than she was when you first came here. I don't want to test her. You'll have to calm her yourself."

"Why me? I'm not her care taker. It is not my job…" Billy shook his head. Under any other circumstances he would be gone, out of the situation and not have anything to deal with it if he could help himself. This was different though. He talked a lot about it, but didn't necessarily mean it. Deep down he wanted to leave-sure he did-but not alone. If he could, he'd take her back to the island to live out her life as she'd been doing for the last 14 years. Unfortunately, no one, not even Billy, thought to ask Lily what she wanted. "I have no authority over her or anyone here," he said, still stroking her temple affectionately, "She's not my damned responsibility."

"You signed a contract, she is your 'damned responsibility.' Whether you like it or not, you're her legal guardian until she's evaluated by the shrink for adult mental capacity," the security guard said quietly.

Billy rolled his eyes. The nurse laughed and stood, Lily must have been relatively healthy enough for her to take a step back. She turned to Billy, "You're stuck with her."


	12. Chapter 12

"She sure is pretty."

Billy looked up at a younger security guard who had eyes so dark that they appeared black. Endless pits of darkness stared down at Lily where lust obviously roiled in them. The paleontologist stood up, right in front of the guard. "Yawell, she needs her rest and as her legal guardian," he took a slow breath, "Get out."

The guard turned and looked down at Billy who was about three inches shorter than him-just enough for him to look down when they spoke. The guard glanced down at Lily and then smiled, a mischievous smile that made Billy want to smack it right of his face that desperately needed a good shave. "Have a good day, Brennan." The guard turned and left without much other than a coy little grin.

The nurse filed out after the police officer, leaving him alone with Lily who seemed in her own little sleeping world. He got up, sighing to himself, and stood by the window in the other room as people filed in to clean the mess. The room soon came together all around him; the couch was righted with the cushions placed back into their proper positions, the coffee table was replaced with a less breakable one which was made of wood and had drawers beneath to hide various things. The lamp was replaced by one that dripped easily into the wall. One of the workers who'd helped put the room back together tried to comfort Billy, offering a few misplaced words of sympathy.

"At least next time she goes ape shit, she'll be less likely to break a bunch of expensive stuff."

Billy gave a glance over his shoulder that must've said to shut up and leave because the man, dressed in a drab pale tan jumper, left almost immediately.

A few minutes after the room was put together, a soft squealing sound came from her bedroom. Billy sighed and followed the sound, knocking on the door before stepping in to see her laying on her side with one arm up under her head, the other draped down in front of her. He felt bad for her, seeing the way she stared at him as if she were a doe caught in headlights.

"Why am I here?" she croaked, her voice so pained he couldn't help but look down in shame of himself. It was him, after all, who inevitably brought her to captivity.

He sighed, leaning against the dresser across from the bed. "I brought you here."

Her eyes narrowed, furrowing. He saw the youth in her mannerisms mixed with an animalistic, primal sense of betrayal. His gut burned as she lowly asked him why he did it. "Money… you never got to understand how important legal tender is. In my world, where I need to work for monster corporations to survive, people go to strange lengths to make it."

"So, it's your fault?"

He nodded, "Unfortunately."

"Get out," she murmured, slowly sitting up. "Get out, Billy."

When he didn't move she began to cough, but it wasn't a cough. It was more like a low, raspy wheezing that came in short bursts and were loud-deafening almost. His mind ached as a memory surged into the forefront of his thoughts. He remembered the sound coming from the raptor he and Mrs. Kerby had trapped in the holding cages behind the hatchery. She was calling for help.

"They aren't coming to save you," he said coldly, waning nothing more than to calm her down and explain himself.

She screamed, curling up into a ball and pushing herself as far back in against the corner of the room as possible, kicking the sheets and comforters off of the bed in the process. He finally gave up trying to get her to calm down and left. Just like a child, she'd have to learn that throwing a fit got her absolutely no where. Not here and certainly not in the jungle.

It was now three-forty-five in the afternoon and he wanted to try and get through to Alan, just to check in and let him know what's gone on in the last two days.

When he got back to his room, just down the hall from Lily's, he found that his laptop was not in its case that he'd tucked beneath his pillow. He also discovered that the flash drives which he was absolutely positive were stowed away in the front pocket of his satchel were also missing. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed Wilder who, for the time being, was his speed dial number 3.

"Wilder speaking," her voice was oddly delightful. She must have had a few glasses of $90 a bottle wine or some other snobby relaxing elixir.

"Where the fuck is my stuff?" he growled bitterly.

She laughed, the sound reminiscent of pots clanking annoyingly as opposed to the delightful melodic sound of Lily's laughter. "Unfortunately we had to confiscate your electronics."

"For what? I didn't do anything…"

"We have reason to believe you've been conspiring against us. After a short investigation we're sure that you're electronics will be returned unharmed. Don't worry Brennan."

"Don't worry? You illegally confiscated my personal, private property and you tell me to calm down!"

"We had a warrant."

Billy laughed, throwing his head back and laughing so guttural and spiteful that Wilder groaned quietly in agitation. "Signed by who?"

"A judge."

He snorted, "Really? Where the hell did you find a judge that was willing to sign a warrant to confiscate my private property without due cause?"

"We had due cause. Your electronics were entered as evidence into an investigation against Alan Grant."

"Are you fucking kidding me?"

"Goodbye Brennan."

"Don't you dare hang up on me, Wilder."

The other line clicked and he almost threw his cell phone in anger. Instead, he tossed it onto the dresser in his room and laid on the bed. At least they hadn't taken his books. His hands wrapped around a large 3 book combination all in one binding called _the Vampire Chronicles_ which included three of Anne Rice's most prevalent vampire novels: _Interview with a Vampire, the Vampire Lestat, and Queen of the Damned_. He certainly didn't look like the type to read a vampire novel. Billy mainly read the novels because he was highly fond of Rice's writing style.

He laid there and read, letting the gurgling of his digesting stomach sooth him into a rhythm until he could get in two pages a minute. Within three hours he had finished the second book, ready to move onto the third before deciding to take a walk. Ordinarily, he'd be at the gym by 9 PM, though at the compound in San Diego, things weren't going exactly his way.

The halls were quiet, save for a janitor with a floor waxing machine that hummed down a distant hallway. He turned from left to right once outside of his room, smelling the Pinesol used to cleans the floors, the tangy and tart lemon scent tickled his nose. Turning to the left he ventured towards the administrative side of the compound, hoping to find someone that he can ask about the occupants of the compound.

The hallways were a drab Heather grey below a chair line designated by a lifted white molding, the walls an off-white eggshell above the chair line. Track lights lined the ceiling, pointed stylishly down at the wall casting soft cones to the floor. He walked softly, his shoes thudding with each step and sticking noisily-if he wanted to hide his approach, now was certainly not the time. He turned down an empty hall that had a service window and a few signs about twenty feet down the corridor, ending with a door that had an exit sign above it. Though it wasn't a legitimate exit, it served its purpose in allowing people to believe that in the case of emergency there was in fact a way out.

Down at the service window he peered in to see a young woman with a short deep chestnut colored bob, pale grey eyes and thin rose-colored lips staring back out the window. She jumped a bit when he appeared, a high pitched gasp escaping her.

"Golly, I didn't see you there…" she leaned forward, straining to see a tag that still sat on the dresser in his room.

"Oh, uh, Brennan, William Brennan," he cleared his throat, leaning forward. He cut her off before she could politely greet him. "I'm here because I just wanted to know the status of the occupants in the compound. How many people are staying here? Amenities? Is my room being monitored? What staff is here?"

The woman sat back and smiled, delighted that she was able to answer all the questions he asked. "Well Mr. Brennan, we've got a staff of twelve who stay overnight at the facility-myself included. The night crew consists of two janitors, three security guards, two live-in paramedics, two receptionists and three scientists that rotate daily with three other scientists located in the labs which are strictly for authorized personnel only. Then there's you, Mr. Brennan and Lily Rhodes. James Owen is located at a commercial hotel off of Harbor Drive." She took a breath and then went on, her small child-like hands fidgeting with various pens on the desk before her, "We have a gym complete with an indoor heated pool, public showers, cafeteria that never closes-though at night only the vending machines are available-and WiFi. Unfortunately, every square inch of this compound is monitored with cameras which are sneaky so don't bother trying to look for them and…" she thought for a moment, twirling a red Bic around her index middle and thumb, "That about answers all your questions I reckon."

Billy nodded his head, looking within the receptionist's area to see if he could find any bits of info not revealed to him. She stood and moved into his plain of vision, "Is there anything else I could help you with, sir?"

He shook his head, tapping his fingers on the counter before thanking her and heading back down the hall to his room. The following three days were the most boring that Billy had experienced since he finished two years at a junior college before moving on to university.


	13. Chapter 13

"Carley Hun?"

"Speaking."

Lily looked across the table at Billy who nodded in encouragement. Her eyes darted from him to the phone in her hands as she pulled it away, gazing at it as if it were entirely out of the universe, an alien object. Billy could hear the woman on the other end saying 'hello' repeatedly. Lily finally lifted the phone to her ear, looking at him while she spoke.

"H-hello… this is Lily," she stammered, curling up even tighter on the chair. She must've learned how to make herself as small as possible on the island-she had no qualms with turning into a tiny nervous ball. He stood and turned his back to her so that she could carry out the conversation on her own. "Yes… I'm your sister. No, this isn't a joke." She paused, her voice sounded hurt, "No… no, I didn't know that. I'm sorry… no, I… alright. He did?" her voice got real low before she carried on, "Well I just wanted to see if maybe we could mee-… oh, yeah. I didn't even think of that. No. No, I'm sorry… mhmm. Yup. I don't know." He turned back to face her, seeing the sullen look on her tanned and scarred features, "Yes. Alright. Goodbye."

Her eyes narrowed, brows furrowed and pinched just above the bridge of her nose. Slowly setting the phone down on its base, she turned to gaze at it. Staring with such intensity that it may burst into flames, the corners of her mouth tightened into straight lopsided V's. After a long while, he sat down beside her. For the first time, she didn't move away from him. 'Progress,' he thought to himself and grinned at her, 'We're making progress.' She turned just slightly after a few seconds, her head still angled sharply down. The depression in her rocked him, he felt it in his very core and it hurt more than he ever wanted to admit. After a long while she opened her mouth as if she were about to say something but may have thought otherwise.

He held out a hand, his palm up, letting her decide whether or not she was willing to make an intimate physical contact such as holding hands. She looked at his hand, realizing the gesture she sighed. "Doesn't that mean you're fond of me?"

"I am fond of you," he said in quiet response.

Lily looked right at him. "My only family is not fond of me," she said flatly.

Billy chewed on the inside of his lip for a moment, "What did she say?"

Her eyes immediately averted, her hands tucked between her crossed Indian-style legs, "Carley, she thought that I was …joking? Yes, she thought I was joking. Said that my mother died on the island, her body was never recovered. Father died shortly after mom in a car accident. She said that she had a life and kids, didn't have time for me. Asked if I understood her-she talked to me like the people here talk to me. Like I'm… an ape. A jungle ape."

He snorted and she hissed, barring her teeth. Lowering his eyes he stifled a smirk as she went on, "Asked me if I understood her and then said she has more important things to deal with than a fraw… frawdu-"

"Fraudulent?" he offered.

She nodded, "Yes, that. She said I was her fraudulent sister and she needed to pick up her daughter from school."

Silence passed between them for a long while until he sighed. It felt wrong to think so fondly of the woman he'd been studying for so long. She looked down at his hand after a few moments, seeing it was still sitting on the couch between them, palm up. Her hand, a closed fist, pressed into his palm. He turned just slightly, amazed at the sensation that such a small gesture could bring. She opened her fist, her long nails tickling his palm and making his fingers twitch slightly. Her slender, mocha colored fingers slid between his and gripped them.

"I think I remember my father holding my hands like this when I was really little," she smiled, the lame corner of her mouth numbly twitching in response. "That or I may have read about it at some point."

He nodded, squeezing her hand and stroking the side of her palm with his thumb. "I wanted to ask you a few more questions."

"No more questions, Billy."

He laughed, looking at her and then suddenly stiffening when the door opened. Wilder, escorted by a security guard-the same one that had made a comment about how beautiful Lily was during her first freak out.

Lily immediately withdrew her hand from Billy's and stood on the couch, scooting back over the arm of the sofa until she stepped off and pressed herself into the corner of the room. Her eyes stared at the guard, lips quivering. She'd turned a ripe red and growled low, the sound reminding Billy of a pit bull just starting to get all worked up.

Billy stood, addressing Wilder as someone extremely displeased but having enough respect to contain himself would. They nodded at one another before she waved a finger for him to step aside. The security guard, however, held Billy's attention by the balls and wouldn't let go. His hazel green eyes followed the burly man as he walked over to Lily, barely juggling concentrating on the scene and listening to Wilder lie effortlessly about her intentions. He watched as the guard started to taunt Lily, faking to lunge at her so that she'd flinch and hiss at him as if she were an animal. The guard started to laugh, doing it again which made Lily last out and claw at him, hissing before returning quickly to her hiding spot in the corner of the room.

He couldn't have it any longer, "Hey, what the hell are you doing?" Billy pulled himself from Wilder, grabbing the shoulder of the guard and forcing the man to face him.

The guard shook his shoulder once with a hard jerk, tossing Billy to the side. "Lay off Brennan, this does not include you."

Billy looked down at Lily, her eyes filled with an anger that he mirrored and used to fuel himself against the guard. The guard said something ridiculous about Lily liking any attention, even if it was a 'good whippin' threat.' Billy mumbled something about the guard needing to remember where his place was. The guard taunted him and that was it.

Billy swung at the guard, his right fist connecting solidly with his left jaw, knocking him back against the wall. Lily screeched, jumping up and launching herself across the room. She slid and then jumped into her own room where the door slammed shut. Wilder was struggling to get the door open and call for help as Billy grabbed the guards shoulders and forced him onto the ground. They fell on top of one another where the paleontologist, a bit more nimble than the stocky guard, easily managed to get the upper hand and seize his baton. He held it above the guards head.

"What have you done to her?" he growled.

"What the fuck do you mean?" the guard tried to struggle, his face contorted with pain as Billy leaned forward so that his knees crushed the guards hands. He howled in pain.

Billy flinched, threatening to bring the baton down on his head, "I saw the way you looked at her. What the fuck did you do?"

The guard glanced behind Billy, his features softening as he smirked a bit. Billy turned just as two needles hooked into his back, one high on his right shoulder, the other down in the padding above his left hip. He flung himself off of the guard, convulsing and groaning, every muscle as tight as possible. He felt as if he'd explode.


	14. Chapter 14

The nurse pressed two of her gloved fingers against his bare back around the probe that remained lodged in the soft pudgy flesh of his back. He'd softened over the years, something he wasn't too keen to admit. She pushed hard, hard enough that he felt his flesh tighten and bruise beneath her fingers. She rotated the probe and pulled to one side, then to the other and finally it dislodged from his back. A droplet of blood replaced the probe, accenting the swollen red irritated flesh around it.

"One down, one to go…" she said almost nervously before repeating the process with the other probe.

Unfortunately, this one was lodged in the even more sensitive soft flesh above his left hip. This time Billy didn't hold back. His agitation and pain from the annoying little probe being twisted out of his flesh made him wiggle, annoyed with everything and anything that had to deal with InGen.

He got up from the table and glared at the woman who'd removed the prods from his back. The nurse stepped back, bumping into a tray of metal instruments that clank, intensifying the thickness of the air. She looked terrified, a different nurse than he'd seen before. He turned and looked at the officer who had tazed him and then the guard who was taunting Lily. He stepped up, got real close to the guard so their noses were almost touching before opening his mouth to say an agitated warning. Unfortunately, the cop took a step closer to him, the sound of his heavy work shoes pulling Billy's attention from the guard.

He went back to his room and slammed the door. By this time it was dark, night again. The compound fell silent and he eventually passed out.

Lily pulled the threads at the corner of the mattress on her bed, her nails yanking them out one by one, trying to get them to unweave enough so that she could grab them and pull. She liked how they felt moving between her fingers, the slight burn of pulling them fast. Her eyes had well adjusted to the night while on the island, the night in the compound was different thought, so much softer and brighter than before. She liked it, but still missed the jungle more than anything.

Deathly aware of the sounds in the hallway she turned to face the door, one of two in her room, which led out into it. Her eyes gazed around the frame, checking for discrepancies between the amount of light coming between the cracks. She followed the sides down to the larger space on the floor where the door didn't quite touch the tiles as it should.

Her heart began to race as she watched the space dim slightly as someone walked by, the quiet echo of their shoes clapping on the ground mirroring her tepid mood. The hair that they cut stuck out in all different directions, making the shadow she cast in the moonlight resembles a Styracosaurus, the cousin of the Trikes. She liked the Styracs more than the Trikes though-they were more ornate in decoration and from everything she's seen and read (including some paleontological journals) they had tighter families. From the day she went 'missing' on Isla Sorna, she'd missed her family and maybe that's why she went with the raptors. For man eating creatures with rows of razorsharp teeth and claws specifically meant to plunge into soft-bellied creatures, they had tight knit families.

Now as she watched someone stand in front of her door she wished more than anything that she were back on the island. The raptors wouldn't let anyone touch her, especially not another human. They were very territorial of her as if she wasn't really a part of the family, more of an investment. Not that she minded of course. Had she been alone the whole time, she… well there wouldn't be a 'whole time', she'd have died right off the bat and she knows that just as well as the next person.

The door opened slowly revealing the silhouette of the guard, Andy Sachs, who'd been a nightly visitor for the last four nights. He stepped inside the room, slowly closing the door behind him and turned to the right after locking it. He set his baton down on the dresser along with his radio, the handcuffs he kept on him at all times and the tazer. She watched as he pulled his belt open. Shaking her head she backed up to the comfortable corner she found on the bed whenever it began.

The sound of clawing on his door drew Billy out of his sleep. He groggily sat up and twisted so his feet hit the ground, which was cold. "I'm coming," he called out and pulled a pair of pants on over his boxers. He hated having to remember where his clothes were in the damned room given to him by the compound.

As the door flew open, Lily fell onto him. Blood smeared down the front of his shirt, her lips and neck completely covered in the thick red fluid. He grimaced and hoped it wasn't hers, though for a moment he did hope it was hers. If it wasn't-she'd be in big trouble. She grabbed his arms, pulling herself up to stand. Gasping for air she growled, looking back over her shoulder. He looked down and struggled to hold her with one arm, bracing her against his body as the other hand reached up to pull her pants up. As he pulled them up he felt blood on her thigh.

"What the hell happened?" he asked as he closed the door, dragging her over to his bed and sitting her down. He knelt before her, watching the blood still drip down her chin and neck."Lily, what happened to you?"

She hissed with each breath, growling lowly when she wasn't wheezing. "Saaa… Saach…" she struggled, "Sachs."

His lip curled as he looked toward the door. He was going to kill Sachs, "Where is he Lily? Is he in your room?"

She nodded and shivered, finally locking eyes with him. "Dead."


	15. Chapter 15

Billy stopped dead, his hand hovering just above the door handle which-like all the other handles on the doors in the compound-hadn't been changed to knobs yet; you'd think people would learn from their mistakes. He turned to face Lily, blinking rapidly as if he could blink away the knowledge that Lily had murdered a guard on a Naval base. She looked at him with unwavering child-like eyes that possessed an innocence that barely clung to whatever of it was left.

"Okay…" he sat on the bed beside her. "What did he do to you?"

She shook her head, "I read a book once. The girl was raped... I want to go home."

He nodded, "Did he hurt you?" She nodded and looked up at him. He stood, rubbing his temples, "We have to be very careful. When do they come check up on you in the morning?" She shrugged.

She wasn't much help. He pulled out his cell and dialed James, having a heated discussion of how they'd get her away from there. They decided inevitably to take her back to the island somehow or another. James was to pick them up in 20 minutes, about the time it would take to him to get to the base.

Billy gave Lily some clothes for her to wear which included a hooded sweatshirt that would hopefully hide her pretty well. He left immediately to go back to her room, catching a janitor off guard on the way. He coaxed the poor janitor into the room before pulling some stuff Alan had showed him the last time they needed to knock someone out, almost a dozen years ago. Jerking the door into the man he knocked him off his feet. The janitor slipped in the pool of blood around Sachs' body where he soon fell, his forehead catching the corner of Lily's dresser. He fell onto the body, out cold.

"Thank God," Billy whispered-the janitor hadn't even had any time to make any sound, and didn't get a chance to fall into the blood which would've blown his cover. Billy stripped the man and pulled the janitor's pale grey jumper that looked more like a prison uniform than anything, on over his day clothes. There was plenty of space between the jumper and his clothes; the janitor had to be at least thirty pounds heavier than Billy. With the janitor's outfit and hat on he grabbed the shades off of the guard's lifeless body, noting a rather large chunk of his throat missing along with his right eye hanging sickeningly out of his eye socket.

He walked out of the room, grabbing the trash bin and replaced one trashcan before slipping back into his own room. Lily got into the bottom of the can as Billy called James.

"Hey, you get texting right?" he asked the geologist who was obviously distracted, most likely driving.

"Yeah why?"

"You know 1's and 0's?"

"You mean bina-"

"Shhhhhhhh," Billy hissed, "They're listening."

James groaned and Billy hung up, his fingers hammering the small keyboard on his cell. He typed out in rapid succession: which translated into "backentrance." He ended the text with, in regular text "your ipad should have a binary code ap if necessary." He sent the text and put a bag in over Lily, telling her to keep quiet. He made sure she had enough space and a hole on the brim of the cart so she could breathe before exiting his room.

The rest of his ploy was embarrassingly easy. He made it down the halls to the back entrance when he found it after replacing two trashcans as a distraction. The rear exit door took the janitor's ID card via scanner and let Billy out easily-he was worried he'd have to use the guard's which might alert someone of his plan.

James was outside in a dumpy looking pickup truck that Billy really didn't want to know where it came from. It looked good though and had a shell that Billy and James lifted the cart into effortlessly. James slammed the window of the shell down and closed.

Billy got into the passenger's side door and shifted, calling back for Lily to remain as quiet as possible until they let her know when it was safe. He pretended to be sleeping, the hat hiding his face for the most part. James drove to the security checkpoint where his ID was checked and then Billy's clip-on janitorial ID. The guard let them pass when James mentioned heading to the dump which had an incinerator to burn some important documents from InGen.


End file.
